SS Marietta E

SS Marietta E was a British cargo ship completed by William Hamilton & Co in Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde in June 1940.[1] She had a single 520 NHP triple-expansion steam engine built by David Rowan and Company of Glasgow,[1] that drove a single screw. She had eight corrugated furnaces heating two 225 lbf/in2 single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 7643 sqft, plus one auxiliary boiler.[1]

She was owned by Leith Hill Shipping Co Ltd and managed by Counties Ship Management Co Ltd of London[1] (CSM), both of which were offshoots of the Rethymnis & Kulukundis shipbroking company.[3] She was named after Marietta Eustathiou, a member of Nicholas Eustathiou shipping concerns that had a major shareholding in her.[3]

Marietta E was a sister ship of SS Michael E, SS Lulworth Hill and SS Primrose Hill, which also were managed by CSM and owned by companies associated with R&K.

Sinking

Early in 1943 she sailed from New York, bound for Alexandria in Egypt via Durban and Aden.[2] She was laden with a cargo of government and commercial stores and deck cargo of eight LCPL landing craft.[2] In Durban she joined convoy DN-21 to Alexandria via Aden.[2] At 0346 hrs on 4 March in the Indian Ocean east of East London, GS U-160 (1941) fired two torpedoes at the convoy, one of which sank the Marietta E killing four crew and one DEMS gunner.[2] South African Navy rescue launch R8 rescued the Master, 33 crew and six DEMS gunners and landed them at Durban.[2]

Further reading